Advent Midweek 1, 2025

Texts: Genesis 17:1-8; Matthew 1:1-6a

Jesus’ Family Tree, Part 1

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Is there any more boring way to begin a story than with a list of names?  Especially strange names that are hard to pronounce, names that you’ve never heard of before?

Certainly, Matthew could have begun the story of Jesus in a more exciting way.  Mark begins with Jesus’ baptism.  Luke begins by explaining why he’s writing and then picking up the story with Zachariah in the temple.  John begins “In the beginning,” with “the Word made flesh.”

Matthew begins with a list of names. 

Now these names are not just random individuals. This is a genealogy.  These are family names, a family tree.  Matthew lists husbands and wives, fathers and mothers and children, all connected to one another from one generation to the next all the way down from Abraham to Jesus. 

When it came time to save the world, when it came time to defeat the power of sin, death, and the devil, when it came time to bring light into the darkness, God did so through families- husbands and wives, fathers and children down through the generations.

Jesus could have shown up like an angel descending straight from heaven.  Jesus could have arrived on the earth as a fully grown man ready to do battle with Satan.

But no, Jesus came to earth as a child, born to a husband and a wife, with grandparents, and great-grandparents, going back for generations.

God saves the world through husbands and wives and children.

That’s why Satan hates families so much and will do anything to break them up.

Satan hates marriages. 

Satan hates it when a man and woman are joined together with the promise and blessing of God.  He’d much prefer if you just do it your way and just live together and despise God’s gift of marriage.  “You don’t need a piece of paper to prove your love,” he says.  “You’re not ready to commit to a lifetime together,” he says. 

And to you parents and grandparents whose children and grandchildren are living together he says, “Don’t rock the boat. Don’t risk upsetting your kids. Show them your love and support by approving of everything they do.”

Satan hates marriage from beginning to end.  If you are married, Satan will stop at nothing to break your marriage up.  He uses everything your husband and wife does to annoy you, get under your skin and try to convince you that you’ve married the wrong person.  “Divorce is no big deal,” he says.  “You can do better.”

Yes, God can and does use single people well, folks like St. Paul who didn’t have wife and children, who could devote himself completely to serving the church.  If that’s where you find yourself, be content, don’t covet another’s spouse, and serve the Lord within the various vocations He has given you.

Satan hates marriage, and he hates children even more.  He tries to convince you that children are a burden, that they hold you back, that you need to enjoy life, to build your career, to delay having children until you’ve experienced all that life has to offer.  

And if the Lord does bless you with a child before you think you’re ready, he uses abortion as a sensible alternative. “It’s just a clump of cells,” he says. “It’s perfectly legal.  You can always have more children.”

Satan hates marriage and he hates children because that’s how the Lord saves His people.

God worked through husbands and wives, parents and children down through the generations to bring Jesus, the promised Messiah, His Savior into the world.

Not through perfect marriages that never had problems or conflicts.  Not through perfect children who always obeyed their parents and got along.  God worked through messy, messed up families like yours and mine.

As we read through these names this Advent season, you might be surprised by what you find.  We’ll read about adultery and prostitution.  We’ll read about sibling rivalry and enslavement.  We’ll read about people that will leave you shaking your head and saying, “I don’t know how the Lord could put up with them.”

Matthew’s list of names begins with Abraham.  He begins with an old man who is childless and homeless.  He begins with a man who lies about his wife, calling her his sister.  He begins with a man who fathers a child with his servant because he thinks it’s the only way to move things along.

But into this imperfect, sinful family comes the word and promise of God.  What is impossible for us is possible for Him—children, land, blessings beyond Abraham’s imagination.

And most important of all, the final words, “I will be their God.”

With these words, the Lord commits Himself to Abraham and His family.  

With these words, the Lord promises, in no uncertain terms, that He will provide for them and deliver them.

Sometimes we see this deliverance in big and mighty ways: the Ten Plagues on the Egyptians, the crossing of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, the fall of Jericho.

But often this comes in ordinary, everyday events: a husband and wife being brought together in holy matrimony.  A child born, their name on Matthew’s list, a child whose birthdate and place, whose lifetime of accomplishments are lost to history, but are still in the line of the Messiah.  Each one of those names is a promise kept as the Lord provides child after child to keep the line of the Messiah alive.

Each one of these names in Matthew’s list is a link in the chain from Abraham to David, to Joseph, to Jesus, and to you. 

No matter how much genealogical research you have done, you probably would struggle to connect your family tree to the names in Matthew’s list.

And yet, you are still part of Jesus’ family tree. You may not be a child of Abraham by blood, but you have been adopted into the family of God by Holy Baptism. Your branch has been grafted onto Jesus’ family tree. 

With a splash of water and the Name of the Triune God, you became a part of this family.  Your name was added to the book of life.  These people in Jesus’ family tree are no longer strangers but now your relatives.  The promise made to Abraham is for you, too.

The Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is your God, too.  No matter how messy your family looks, no matter how messy your own life looks, if you have committed adultery or been divorced, if you’ve fought with your siblings or rebelled against your parents, the Lord is your God.

And Jesus is your Savior.  He is born for you, into your family, joined to you by His flesh and blood so that you now have forgiveness, you now have peace with God and with your family, too, as we await His return and the great family reunion that will never end.  You’ll get to meet some of these folks on Matthew’s list on that great and glorious day. And Jesus, too, because you are a member of His family.

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